AHA: Animal Studies Link ATP to Heart Function Recovery

THURSDAY, July 21 (HealthDay News) -- Depressed myocardial function after stress can be improved by increasing adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels by ribose infusion, according to an experimental study presented at the American Heart Association's Basic Cardiovascular Sciences 2011 Scientific Sessions, held from July 18 to 21 in New Orleans.

John E. Foker, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and colleagues infused two animal models of myocardial stress with ribose to investigate the effect of increased ATP on heart failure, comparing the results with controls not infused with ribose. The first model was an intact canine model of global ischemia which allowed for serial myocardial biopsies and detailed heart functional analysis; the second, a rat myocardial infarction (MI) model for echocardiographic analysis of the remote myocardium.

The investigators found that ATP and diastolic compliance recovery in the ribose-infused canine model occurred earlier, at an average of 2.8 and 2.4 days, respectively, compared to 9.9 and 9.4 days, respectively, in the controls. In the rat model, ribose infusion reduced the average increase in left ventricular (LV) systolic diameter from the pre-MI stage to that observed two weeks post-MI compared to the controls (from 0.39 cm to 0.47 cm and from 0.40 to 0.73 cm, respectively). The remote LV wall thickness increased in the ribose-infused rat model and decreased in the controls (from 0.13 to 0.18 and 0.10 cm, respectively). The average LV ejection fraction after MI improved in ribose-infused rat model compared to the controls (52 versus 22 percent, respectively).